Audi AG announced today that global sales for the month of April fell 5.6%. While this drop is indicative of the turmoil in the financial as well as auto markets, it is also telling of Audi's ability to better manage the current crisis than its competitors.
Audi's April 2009 global sales fell 5.6% to 81,923 vehicles for the month and 291,951 vehicles for all of 2009, a drop of 15% on the year.
BMW, in contrast saw its global sales for April tank 25% to 84,218 while its total sales for the year have fallen by 22% to 317,722 cars.
Mercedes-Benz has also seen larger declines when compared to Audi. For the month of April, Mercedes-Benz saw its global sales fall 23% to 80,700 vehicles. This shows that Mercedes-Benz sold fewer cars than Audi for the month of April. For all of 2009, Mercedes-Benz sales have fallen 25% to 296,700 vehicles.
Audi was the 3rd best-selling luxury manufacturer in 2008 with Mercedes-Benz taking second place honors outselling Audi by approximately 100,000 vehicles.
Audi has now closed the gap with Mercedes to less than 4,800 vehicles for the entire year through the first 4 months of 2009.
It should be exciting to see if Audi can continue to close the gap and finish in second place - marking a changing of the guard.
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